Max Verstappen will begin the Brazilian Grand Prix from the pit lane instead of 16th position on the grid. Red Bull Racing is swapping the RB21's engine and tweaking its setup, according to Dutch publication De Telegraaf.

Verstappen was eliminated in the opening qualifying session on Saturday for the first time since the 2021 Russian Grand Prix, though on that occasion it was down to engine troubles. When quizzed about the championship battle afterwards, he declared: "I can forget about that."

Nevertheless, the defending champion secured fourth place in the sprint race, bagging five points. That leaves Verstappen trailing leader Lando Norris by 39 points with four races remaining.

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Oscar Piastri finished between the pair and secured fourth in qualifying but crashed out of the sprint encounter.

Verstappen now sits 30 points adrift of the Australian.

Red Bull's lead driver, though, boasts experience of charging through the field to claim victory.

He achieved exactly that in Brazil last year after beginning 17th, having been handed a five-place grid drop for utilising a sixth power unit alteration.

Twelve months on, Verstappen has admitted the squad are still baffled by his car's lack of pace.

"We need to understand what our problems are, first of all," he explained.

"It's not been good. It seems that we don't really understand why it's going that way.

"There was just no grip. I changed a few times the car and it didn't work. That's something that we need to figure out."

Elsewhere, Lewis Hamilton managed to avoid a grid penalty despite being found guilty of failing to slow for yellow flags during qualifying for the Sprint race at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

The incident occurred in the second phase of Friday's session, triggered by team-mate Charles Leclerc spinning off track.